1. Technical Fields
The present invention relates to a fluid ejecting apparatus and a maintenance method therefore.
2. Related Art
In the related art, as a fluid ejecting apparatus configured to eject ink (fluid) to a printing paper (medium), an ink jet printer (hereinafter, referred to as a printer) is widely known. In the printer as described above, there is a problem of nozzle clogging due to increased viscosity or solidification of ink caused by evaporation of ink from nozzles of a printhead, adhesion of dust thereto, or entry of air bubbles, which results in defect printing. Therefore, normally, the printer is configured to perform a flashing operation which forcedly discharges ink in the nozzles in addition to ejection to the printing paper.
For example, JP-A-2008-238561 and JP-A-2008-238562 disclose a configuration including a capping device which moves upward and downward in association with the movement of a carriage to bring a cap-shaped ink receiving member into contact with the printhead to achieve a capped state when maintenance is performed.
On the other hand, when the flashing operation is performed between a printing paper and another printing paper (between papers) during the printing operation, the printhead cannot be moved. Therefore, for example, there is a known method of discharging ink toward the cap-shaped ink receiving member provided downward of the printhead during the flashing operation. However, since the ink receiving member is located at a position lower than a sealing surface with respect to the printhead except for a period when maintenance is performed, if an attempt is made to cause the flashing process to be performed between the printing papers being transported during printing, as the distance between the printhead and the ink receiving member is larger than the distance between the printhead and the printing paper, there arises a problem such that ink droplets ejected from the printhead is liable to be transformed into mist.
In order to solve this problem, placing the ink receiving member at a position closer to the printhead is conceivable. Since the flashing process is performed during the printing, the ink receiving member needs to be moved upward and downward at a high speed with respect to the printhead. However, the ink receiving member which assumes a cap shape has a large mass, and hence is not suitable for being moved upward and downward at a high speed because an increased load is resulted.
In this manner, it is difficult to bring the ink receiving member arranged downward of a printing paper transporting plane closer to the printhead between the printing papers being printed continuously. In particular, in a printer having a high-speed printing performance such as a line head printer, the printing performance might be lowered due to the flashing operation.
Since the ink receiving member comes into abutment with the nozzle surface of the printhead, there is a probability that the ink receiving member may come into abutment with the nozzles and thus break meniscuses.